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Hey everyone! I've been lurking for a while, but this is my first forum thread post! I'm a college student in SoCal looking for my first credit card. Building credit is a pretty new concept to me, but from my understanding its better to start now than never. I've been looking online about some newer cards and also more established cards that are friendly to new users like TomoCredit, Petal, and Capital One. I know Capital one is used by a lot of students. Does anyone have experience with these companies? Thank you so much!

Hi there, I've taken out a loan to attend a private university in the US a few years back. This school has a cooperation with a private, US-based, lending institution to enable prospective international students that cannot find any other forms of financing to take out a loan. In case of the student not being able to make payments and going into default the university is then liable to pay as it basically functions as co-signer. I've been making my payments for the last several years, but now I am encountering financial difficulties that will likely force me to go into default on the loan. That would then mean the university would have to pay the remainder of the loan. As my situation does not look likely to improve over the next few years a deferment may not be an option, so it will likely result in the private university having to cough up the money. Borrowing money from another source is not an option for me as I have no assets to use as collateral. I own a 2nd hand car, re-possessing that would yield less value than going through the whole (int'l) paperwork to get a title to re-possess it in the first place. I do not own any real estate or have any wealthy family, I come from a fairly humble background by US standards. I am NOT living & working in the US and am NOT a US citizen. The loan is NOT a federal student loan and the amount outstanding is less than $100k. What are my options? Can the university get a title against me and possibly re-sell that to an international collections agency? Does it depend on bi-lateral relations? Could it affect me in any way if I were to move to the US at some point in the future? Could I declare chapter 7 bankruptcy in the US? Any other suggestions, possibilities and/or consequences? So far it's not come to this and I'm merely conducting exploratory research. I think the fact that I've actually paid for a few years shows that I'm not trying to run from my responsibilities or get an education on someone else's dime. Hope you can understand that I will not mention the name of the university or the lending institution. Thanks in advance for any and all help & suggestions. xyz12345

Hello I have some questions regarding my student loans. I know there are government loans and private loans. My government loans were garnished until a certain period of time, and then I proceeded to pay them off (on top of my garnishments). The private loans are held through Sallie Mae, and being that they're private they do not garnish. Instead, Sallie Mae has continued to hit me with very high interest rates at which are doubling and tripling my total amount due over the years. I can no longer run and hide, the more I hide the sooner my loans reach $100k mark. I am confused and not sure what to do, it seems if I start paying I will simply be paying the interest for years and years prior to even touching the principal amount due. Onto my question, and I have to ask because I don't know what to do. I have been told by many people that after 7 years and (3-4 months) private loans will fall off of my credit report. I am coming here to see if there is any truth to this and or what I should do to increase my score. I'm financially stable at this point and need to get the credit score addressed immediately for it is affecting many points in my life. If this means tackling the loans head on, then so be it. It will be a long while before they are paid, but if that's what needs done so be it. If you all tell me I should start paying them, will I see a increase in my score once I start making payments? Thanks all, sorry it's so brief but figured you didn't want a long read. Thank you all, if there is any information you need please let me know. Apprecaite any advice you can offer I'm simply looking for the most cost affective and best way to increase my score. Sadly I didn't even finish college due to a job offer at which I couldn't pass up and I am currently still employed with said company. Thanks all

Hello, I have a quick (hopefully) question. Today I received a letter from an attorney in Columbus, Ohio (I'm in Cleveland, Ohio) stating that I owe $556 to the State due to some money I supposedly owe to a community college. If the debt is legit, it had to be from 2006 or prior, because I haven't gone to school at this college in a long time. In fact, I finished my degree in 2009 at another school. I used student loans and have never had an issue with obtaining student loans or federal grants (which is normally an issue if you have outstanding payments due to other colleges). Anyway, I am going to write a denial letter to the attorney because I have no idea what this debt is for and when I called in, they couldn't really tell me either, other than "well, maybe you dropped a class too late." All of that said, does anyone know if a statute of limitations applies to this type of collection? If this is legit (which I don't think it is anyway), does a regular credit SOL apply to something that's been "turned over" the the state or originated from a college? The woman on the phone said they'd called me in 2008 but that I refused to pay the debt because I said I didn't know what it was. I haven't heard about it since, but I don't even remember that phone call. TIA.